“What the hell is Nick doing here? I thought we were going to the hospital to see him before we left,” Kevin moaned as he entered the van.

“Hello to you too,” Nick mumbled back in reply, drawing a thin blanket tighter to his chest.

”Move it people! We don’t have time to chit-chat....time is money,” Pearlman barked, sending the rest of the men to literally jump into the awaiting vehicle.

Brian took his place next to the ailing teen while Howie, AJ and Kevin took the bench seat behind Nick and Brian.

“Why aren’t you still in the hospital?” Brian whispered.

“Because the doctors said it was fine for him to leave,” Pearlman replied from the front seat. “Isn’t that right, Nick?”

“Something like that I guess,” he replied after swallowing hard. He hated to lie to his best friend but he was afraid of what Pearlman would do if he told the truth......that he wasn’t discharged.

Brian looked at Nick with an eyebrow arched in question. “Honestly?”

Pearlman turned to look at the young blonde, giving him a pleading look mixed with in with a touch of threat.

“Yeah, Mr. Pearlman asked me a couple of times if this is what I wanted and I said yes, I’m okay.”

“You heard it from Carter, he said he felt fine so just leave it at that.”

Carefully, Nick shifted his body and leaned his head against the cool glass window, closing his eyes. He hoped that this would end the conversation.

“You really don’t look like you’re okay to me,” Brian said as he looked at Nick.

“I’m gonna try and take a nap, I’m tired just tell me when we get there,” Nick mumbled.

With a sigh, Brian realized that Nick’s side of the conversation was ended. It seemed as if he was hiding something from them. Brian had no idea what it was but he was determined to find out what.... He knew that Lou had a hold over the young man and the way he always badgered Nick, no doubt he threatened him with something else that Nick seemed to be so easily agreeable with Pearlman.

Glancing over his shoulder, he noted that Kevin was sandwiched in his seat between Howie and AJ; reading glasses perched ontop of his nose, no doubt he was reading another contract. Johnny Wright was seated behind the trio.

“Hey Kev.....Kevin...”

“Littrell, be quiet and just leave everyone alone with your theories about how bad Nick looks. The kid is just tired...that’s all....plain and simple,” Johnny sneered.

“Can’t you see he’s more than just tired Johnny, look at him. Seriously just for a minute can’t you see----”

”I hear way too much chatter going on back there,” Pearlman’s voice boomed from the front seat of the van.

“Keep your mouth shut if you know whats good for you Bri-an,” Johhny warned.

As Brian opened his mouth to protest he immediately closed it when Kevin tossed a warning glare his way. Pulling the bill of his ball cap over his eyes and then folding his hands across his chest, Brian slumped down into his seat.

’It’s always when I want to say something Kevin gets a stick up his ass and tells me to shut up,’ Brian mentally sulked.

The van took the turn into the airport too sharply and a sudden cry from Nick jerked Brian out of his self loathing thoughts.

“Nicky, are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” he panted in a pain-filled whimper.

Looking at Nick’s ashen complextion Brian realized he was anything but fine. Not only did his face appear pale and gray, the lids below his eyes looked swollen.

“I don’t believe you......please tell me what’s wrong....”

“I said I’m fine,” Nick replied quickly through gritted teeth.

“Leave Carter alone with the twenty questions, we’re at the airport, grab your carryon shit and move...NOW!

Nick whimpered as he leaned forward to retrieve his backpack, Brian laid his hand gently over the top of Nick’s. “I’ll get it, okay?”

As much as he wanted to argue with Brian, he was grateful, especially when he realized that it would have been difficult to pick the bag up let alone carry it through the airport. “Thanks.”

“No problem.”

Kevin noticed how Nick struggled to exit the van as well as how he stood with a stooped posture as if he were guarding his side for some reason. Shaking his head, he quickly stepped up to the young man’s side, offering an arm around his waist to help support Nick as he walked. “This is so fucking crazy,” he muttered under his breath.

They barely made it down the airport hall when Nick stopped in mid-stride, the occasional soft coughing had finally led up to frequent coughs.

“Are you okay Nicky?” AJ called out as he turned to see what was going on.

“I....I....*cough* c-can’t *cough* c-c-catch ma-my *cough*”

Brian’s eyes widened in worry as he watched Nick struggle to catch a breath. “It’s his asthma....where is his puffer, do you have it?”

“Calm down Brian,” Kevin stated in a calm voice as he patted Nick’s shirt pocket.

Nick shook the older man away as he continued to cough.

“Nickolas, where is your inhaler?”

The urgent tone in the older mans voice practically scared Nick. “I’m fine.” The words barely escaped his lips when he was sent gasping for air once again.

“Kaos, you’re anything but fine,” AJ gasped as he started patting down Nick’s pants pockets. Before Nick could pull himself away from AJ’s reach and call him queer, AJ produced the white Albuterol Inhaler. “Here!”

Instead of grabbing the puffer, Nick pushed it away with an open hand. He knew the difference between an asthma cough and the cough he was having at the moment. This clearly wasn’t asthma.

“Kaos, take the goddamn puffer now! Kevin urged.

“It won’t help,” Nick argued between coughs.

“Bullshit.......take the goddamn thing now!” AJ insisted. “Take it or I’ll shove it down your throat!”

“Nick...please you gotta do this or it will get worse,” Howie pleaded.

Shaking his head, Nick broke away from Kevin’s grasp and leaned against the nearby wall, sliding his body down to the floor. “I just need to rest for a sec.”

“Do you want me to get a cart? We can get one so you can ride to the waiting area,” Brian offered.

Nick declined the offer. “I’m fine I just need to rest a minute.... I think I’ve done too much since getting out of the hospital I guess.”

“Yeah, done a lot there Kaos, just walked from the van about two hundred yards or something,” AJ said as he rolled his eyes. “You look like shit and you probably feel like it too, am I right?”

Nick’s hopes of being invisible didn’t last long as a crowd of people were starting to gather behind his brothers and some of them had the gall to snap pictures. This only served as getting Lou Pearlman’s attention also.

“Why the fuck are you sitting on the floor Carter?” Pearlman hissed quietly.

“It’s called having an asthma attack,” AJ sarcastically replied.

Pearlman glared at the tattooed singer before training his stare at the pale teen on the floor. “He seems to be breathing fine to me.”

Pressing the palms of his hands on the floor, Nick grunted as he struggled to stand up. “I’m fine I just needed to rest a sec,” he apologized.

“Good, then lets keep moving or we’ll miss our flight, remember time is money boys...”

Brian looked at his cousin and rolled his eyes as he mouthed the words that Pearlman said. They had heard that line one time too many.

”NICK....ARE YOU OKAY?” a fan cried out.

“Nick is fine......just fine, I think the time change threw him a curve,” Pearlman lied with a fake smile pasted on his lips.

Without warning, a group of young fans rushed up to Nick, catching him offguard, flattening his body roughly against a wall. As soon as Nick’s body made contact with the hard wall, he quickly cried out in pain.

“Nick! Awwww Nick!” the young girls screamed as they pawed at their idol.

With pain-filled eyes, Nick looked wildly around for someone to save him from the mess he was caught up in. He desperately wanted to sink down to the floor and curl up into a ball but the girls seemed to be intent on pulling and clawing at anything they could wrap their hands on - his hair......his shirt.

”I GOT IT I GOT IT! a girl shrieked as she ran away with a tuft of blonde hair in her fist.

Kevin, Brian, AJ and Howie stood back in horror as they watched the scene unfold, helpless in being able to aid their brother.

“Goddamn Lou for wanting to leave here without security,” Kevin muttered as he watched on.

“I sure as hell ain’t gonna stand here and watch that kid get eaten alive,” AJ rasped. Tossing down his bag, he sprinted head on toward the group of girls that surrounded Nick. ”LADIES....PLEASE! LETGO OF HIM NOW!”

”AJ.......don’t..... Howie was barely able to call out before AJ jumped into the girls like he was heading for a mosh pit at a concert.

Kevin turned toward the obese manager and his assistant Johnny. “You got us into this now you get us out of this.” The managers didn’t move, just gawked at the scene with mouths hanging open.

Shrill whistles indicated that airport security had arrived, battons in air ready to use them to fend off the young women. They yelled to the crowd some explict words in German which had the young ladies scrambling away from their attention. A disheveled Nick was leaning against the wall, arms still protectively placed in front of his face.

Kevin instantly rushed up to Nick, placing comforting hands on the young man’s shoulders. “Nick, it’s okay,” he soothed as he tried to guide Nick’s arms away from his face. After a few moments of pulling, he was finally successful and he was rewarded with a tear-streaked pale and scared looking teenager.

“Just another thing that will go in my notes,” Kevin muttered as he placed a protective arm around Nick’s shoulder. “C’mon Nicky, do you think you can walk the rest of the way to the waiting area?”

Nick couldn’t verbally answer but just shook his head yes.

The walk that should have only taken ten minutes had stretched to over twenty-five with Pearlman constantly looking back and giving them a stern look every two or three minutes. Nick kept his thoughts focused on the waiting area knowing that he could at least rest for a few moments before he would have to board the plane.

Besides the severe back ache he had been dealing with, now his stomach was starting to do flip flops and he was considering that it was because his jeans were starting to feel a bit tight around the waist and legs. He tried to push his discomfort out of his mind, concentrating on the lobby as he tried to swallow the nausea away.

’The lobby.....just make it to the lobby....’ Nick sing-songed in his fever riddled mind. His heart skipped a beat when Pearlman and Johnny made a turn into a large waiting area. As much as he had longed to sit down and rest, his body was telling him that he needed to hit the can.

AND NOW.

Breaking away from Kevin’s help, Nick half-walked, half-ran - as best as he could with his back ache - toward the rest rooms across the hall.

“Nick where are you going?” Kevin called out.

“With his tiny bladder, probably had to hit the head...I’ll follow him,” AJ offered with a cheeky grin.

When Nick pushed the door open to the mens room, he felt a wave of relief sweep over him only to realize two things: one, all the stalls were occupied and two, he wasn’t going to make it to a stall if it had been unoccupied. As much as he tried to will his body to make it to the sink, it didn’t work and he wound up vomiting bile onto his shirt, pants, shoes and the floor. He hadn’t had anything except for IV fluids and some water for the past two days so there wasn’t much that was coming up but fluid.

“Good god Kaos,” AJ moaned when he entered the facilities to find Nick gagging at the sink.

“S-sorry, I couldn’t make it on time,” he sheepishly apologized as he wiped his mouth off with the back of his hand. “I’ll be fine.”

“You keep saying you’ll be fine but you’re not, stop trying to convince me, okay kid?” AJ stated as he approached the paper towel dispenser.

Quickly turning on the tap, Nick cupped the cool water with his hands, splashing his face. He chanced a glimpse of his reflection in the large bathroom mirror shocked to see the paleness of his skin and how red his lips looked. “I look like shit.”

“We’ve been telling you that.”

Nick shook his head. “No I mean I really look like shit,” he moaned.

“A little soap and water will clean you up, here,” AJ handed Nick a wet paper towel.

Nick accepted the offer and dabbed at his shirt and pants to get the vomit off as best as he could. “Great, now I not only look like shit, I smell like it too.”

“Theres a cologne dispenser on the wall,” AJ stated as he reached into his pocket. “I’ve got some coins, hold on a sec, we’ll fix you up.”

Nick watched as AJ dropped coins into the machine and selected a packet of mens cologne. “I’m gonna go get your backpack and see if there is something you could change into.”

Normally Nick wouldn’t carry spare clothes in his backpack but lucky for him he happened to have stashed a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt away some time ago. AJ rushed the clothes into the bathroom.

“Here, put these things on and put them in this plastic bag and hurry up, Lou is having a fit out there waiting for us. I guess we’re close to missing the flight or something gay like that.”

Taking the clothes with shaking hands, Nick moved to an empty stall and set about the painful task of undressing and redressing.

“How much time do we have before the flight?”

“Um, dunno,” AJ replied.

Moaning as he stepped out of the jeans, Nick bit his bottom lip to keep from crying out. He always hated flying as a rule, but thinking about being in a plane for twelve hours seemed more than he could handle with the way he was feeling.

“I don’t think I can do this,” he mumbled.

“What did you say Kaos?”

“I don’t think I can do this,” he repeated.

“Something wrong with the clothes I brought you?”

Tears that were threatening to spill stung his eyes. He shook his head. “Something like that, just skip it....okay?”

“Well, if you’re okay, I’m going back out to the lobby, are you gonna be alright?”

“Yeah,” Nick sighed, letting the tears finally fall.